Payment using credit cards and debit cards has become commonplace throughout many regions of the World, for example as the World moves progressively towards a cashless society to employ a Worldwide currency issued by a World bank controlled by a World government. Such cards avoid people having to carry large amounts of cash with them which can be both dangerous and inconvenient. Moreover, the use of these cards by their owners allows for automatic generation of bank statements informing the owners of available balances within their respective bank accounts. However, bank statements only disclose the identity of organisations to which payments have been made and a total magnitude of payments made to the organisation, and not specific items which have been purchased within each commercial transaction. Such lack of information often renders it difficult for credit card and debit card owners to plan their expenditure based upon such bank statements.
It is envisaged with multiple coincidences of “peak oil”, a burgeoning World population, a depletion of natural resources, anthropogenically-induced climate change and an end of easy credit that living standards of most people in the World will reduce in coming years. A problem therefore arises for tools and facilities to enable people to budget more effectively so that their diminishing financial resources are utilized in a most appropriate manner.
In a published United States patent application US 2004/0088238 A1 (Gilson et al.), there is described a method and system for monitoring electronic transactions, for example credit card transactions, for determining whether or not associated transaction costs, such as interchange fees, are being properly qualified. Such proper qualification is accomplished by monitoring for a “spike” in interchange qualification and generating an alert when one or more “spikes” are detected. “Spikes” in interchange qualifications are defined as a variation in interchange qualifications compared with an historic level. Technology described in this patent application is concerned with a problem of monitoring transaction costs.
In a published United States patent application US 2006/0064379 A1 (Doran et al.), there are described methods and systems for exchanging various forms of value, including coins, currency, credit, debit and/or bank account funds, for prepaid cash cards, credit cards, phone cards, and the like. A value exchange machine is described which includes a coin input region, a coin sorting/counting apparatus, a card reader, and a communications facility configure to communicate with a remote computer network. Alternatively, a value exchange system is described which includes one or more value exchange machines connected to one or more remote computers via a communication link.
Security problems in connection with Internet banking have been previously reported, for example hackers gaining access to bank account details and so forth (Kalakota and Whinston, 1997). Such hacking can include password “sniffing”. For reducing a risk of credit card fraud, a SET-system has been proposed which employs a specification developed by VISA and MasterCard in collaboration with Netscape, Microsoft and IBM. In the SET-system, four parties are operable to exchange data: a buyer, a seller, a certifying authority and a bank. A presumption to a financial transaction is that the seller and buyer are certified. A financial transaction is implemented by the buyer and the seller “fining” one another via the Internet. The seller's bank automatically sends information regarding the purchaser's bank account number which is checked to ensure that there are adequate associated funds for implementing a purchase. The transaction is then authorized and a payment transfer is made between the buyer and the seller. The SET-system is an open system and can be freely used by any party desirous to implement a financial transaction via Internet. A disadvantage of the SET-system is a relatively large number of communication interactions required to execute a transaction which can add costs which the buyer and/or seller must bear. The SET-system has been in use since the year 2000.